What to do when you have too many apple trees

Autumn has arrived and for our fores... garden, it meant that our apple trees started to be filled with apples. This has of course its advantages, since we don't have to buy apples anymore (and not even grapes, for that matter...), however, it also means that we have just a couple of kilos of apples that we surely don't manage to eat.

The first harvest was concerning just the two plants of "autumn apples". The production reached 20 kilos of apples. What to do with them? And what to do with all the apples that we have still to collect since they are yet to be ripe?

The answer is: bring them to a "musteri". I can't find a proper word to translate this (maybe someone can help me out?) but a musteri is a place where magically apples are transformed into apple juice, or cider or other fancy apple-derived-drinks.

The one that is closest to us is Sövde Musteri, where closest is of course a relative word, but let's say, it is close enough.

Sövde Musteri

What one does is driving the apples to the place, drop them in a big container, get a ticket with written how many kilos of apples you have delivered and then go to the shop.

Äpple must

Then, you are entitled to buy among three tipes of products (apple juice, apple "glögg" and something else, I do not remember) a certain number of bottles at a certain price.
Yay.

More apple juice

This is a great business model: we are the ones picking up kilos of apples, packing them, bringing them there and dumping them there. Then they make juice out of it and we get the possibility to buy the drinks at a reduced price. How convenient!The truth is that we still prefer to do so, instead of having tons of apples rottening in our garden, but surely, they have found the key to success.

There are though furthermore activities concerning the waste of apples. We are aware of this initiative but we haven't had the time to look at it very much...
So far, we are happy somebody is possibly "drinking" our apples somewhere in Skåne...

Copenaghen weekend

No, we haven't been again in Copenaghen!
I hadn't simply found the time to write about our wedding anniversary weekend from a little bit more touristic perspective. It was not just about Copenaghen Cooking :)
That was also an excuse to actually see some parts of the city that we didn't even know they existed (well, some of them at least).

Scientology found's office in Copenaghen

 One of the things that I spotted quite quickly was that there is "a lot" of Scientology around. Or at least, a couple of visible places concerning it. Which is quite interesting: why in Copenaghen?

On saturday, we were mainly walking in the central part of Copenaghen. We didn't see anything specific except our target places for Copenaghen Cooking.
We ate lunch at Hereford Beefstouw, with the hope that Isabella would eat some meat, but in she was too tired for that. We enjoyed a very nice meal, instead (well, food wise), while she was trying to trash the place.

On our way back to the hotel, I could observe something that in Italy they could just dream about it: a fancy bike parking!
It is true, nordic cities are more "biking oriented" and Copenaghen is well known for this very nice feature. And it is interesting to think that although the climate is worse, bikes are used in all sort of weather conditions up here in the north!
It is not easy to "rebuild" old towns to include bikes path everywhere, but Copenaghen was not just built yesterday so how did they manage to make it so much more bike friendly?

Walking in the fog

 

What was it???

 At a certain point we saw a small crowd and a lot of white fog. We didn't really understand what was happening and we weren't the only ones that were puzzled.
It became so foggy that it was impossible to proceed and we had to wait that the fog disappear.
In reality there were some people dressed almost like Ghosbusters shooting this fog out of some device.
We found out by reading a sign that this was not a manifestation but an exhibition and that was some artistic representation. A bit hard to grasp maybe...?

After an average meal at Ristorante l'Appetito, we made Isabella fall asleep and eventually we rest our poor feet!

On Sunday, we were waiting for the next "event" to take place. We decided then to take a walk in the morning and we ended up exploring a part of Copenaghen that we had heard a lot about, but never went to. Christiania. I have heard people depicting it as "nice, characteristic, interesting, ...". A part that I don't want to know why they went there on the first place, but it looked like a decadent trashed rotten piece of land, where homeless people were around. Nothing fancy with it, on the other hand it gave me the shivers!
And, funny though that they are so liberal, but casually you can't take pictures and there were big signs saying: if you see the police, don't panic! :-)

After such an experience, we walked back to the center and saw some nice street that didn't look like belonging to the centre of a capital. Still Copenaghen can surprise us!

Are we in Lund?

After a very improvised lunch (for Isabella...), we walked a long way to reach the location of Nordic Taste.
It was located at Carlsberg Bryggeri, which offers also tours for the ones that are interested.
Around that part of the town, one could see some old interesting houses, that seemed very "London, industrial revolution style" and just some old buildings around the Bryggeri were very peculiar.

Approaching Carlsberg

The legendary Elephant port

It is highly possible that the place deserves a proper visit, but surely we didn't have the time to deal also with that during this short trip. Unfortunately, that was the last place we visited during this occasion, and on the way back from Carlsberg to the station, we simply stopped at a vietnamese restaurant to eat something (it was a very odd time to have lunch, though) for then rushing home and rest!!! :)

Copenhagen Cooking

For our last wedding anniversary, we managed to escape from our duties and allow us, for once, a little vacation that didn't include meeting any relative: we went to Copenhagen, which is one of our most common travel destinations.
 Since we are boring, not only we chose a city where we have been quite many times, but we connected it with one of our passions: food.
 During that weekend, and in this period, small events are taking place in different parts of the town, with the red thread being food. The main event was Copenhagen Cooking.

Unfortunately, participating in some events was not ideal for us; apart the quite relevant cost, we had also our favorite ballast with us, Isabella. Hence, we could not go and enjoy watching "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" and our dinner experience was nothing too exotic.
 Despite everything, we managed to go assist the Knorr Cook Along, in Torvehallerne and participate in the Nordic taste event at Carlsberg Bryggeri.

Mattias checking food at Torvehallerne

The cooking along was not exactly cathing our attention. Once at Torvehallerne, we were hypnotized by the place itself and we went around scanning every little shop and searching what we want to eat.
We basically spent the whole afternoon eating. Salty food, sweet and pastry, smoothies. We tried a bit of everything even though we didn't try everything really :)

But that was the most fascinating food market I have ever seen! I was just drooling envying the people working in the sorrounding that have the possibility to choose something of that amazing buffet of tastes for lunch. We were so enthusiastic that we were almost deciding to move to Copenhagen ;-)

The amazing vegetable market

Some fish boutique

Our first purchase: a "fish tapas plate". Some things were very tasty, others so so!

An amazing raspberry pie, from the French chain Brioche Doree

A strawberry cupcake on the left and a passionfruit cupcake on the right, from Agnes cupcakes

A surprise in the cupcake... :)

Reaching the Nordic Taste event was not easy. Or better, it was quite ok, but it required about 30-40 minutes of walk. And being the whole Copenhagen Cooking undercommercialized, finding the way was like opening a mistery box.
Eventually, we landed in place and when looking around we saw that we were not alone....

The place was literally full with people and stands. Around 27 stands were offering mini portions of food and we had the opportunity to taste from 10 of them and decide which one was the best (for us, of course, although our opinion is always what everyone else should think ;D).
The food was both danish and swedish (or better, from Skåne), with small and big names presenting dishes. An interesting fact was that there was a big tent with smaller stands not competing presenting all sort of food, fruit, vegetable and more from Skåne. The Danes are crazy about those things :) And we too, and hence we are very glad to live in the right part of Sweden ;-)
Unfortunately, it was quite stressful for us being there, since Isabella was very restless in the stroller and it was not funny to walk with her in the crowd and we forgot to take some pictures of what we were eating :-(
However, among what we tasted there were three or four small dishes that caught our palate and, a bit for supporting Skåne, a lot because it was very good, we gave our fork/vote to Brösarps Gästgifveri.
Still, I haven't found who won that day...but it must have been what we have voted, of course!!!

An birthday duck at Lemongrass

It took my birthday for finally going to Lemongrass, a quite well-known and popular restaurant in Malmö. For years, I heard colleagues telling me how lovely the food was there. And if at first, the "asian fusion" confused me, then I taught that the popularity was possibly well deserved.
And finally, with our little Isabella, we decided to celebrate my 33rd birthday (sounds like the last supper...).

Located quite central in Malmö, it is not in a very beautiful building, however, the restaurant itself is quite cozy and welcoming.
The staff was very nice and polite, from tipping us on the fact that we could close the window to avoid smoke to intoxicate all of us, to recommending us to not take the tasting menu, in order to avoid to starve. Luckily, we followed the waitress advice and decided to try a bit of dishes, a plate of sushi, 3 appetizers and two main courses.

The appetizers and the sushi

The rice paper wrap, or better the vietnamese summer rolls, were ok. Just ok. We are used to the ones of another restaurant and those are great! And the hoi chi min sauce is much tastier. And for the same money we can get four times more rolls.
Another disappointment was the green papaya salad.  Ok, we are not in Thailand, but it lacked some sting in the taste and unfortunately, had quite little to do with the fantastic salad we still remember we took the first day in Nai Harn.
If these were the lows, we were enthuasiast instead of the spicy beef sallad. Finally spicy, finally fresh, had a fantastic sauce and the meet was nice and tasty. Yummi!!! Pity it was over too soon, but then there were four very nice pieces of sushi awaiting our mouths. Ok, it is not the sushi from Sushi Zanmai in Tokyo but for being in Sweden it was approved.

The main dishes

But the horror crawled on our table as soon as the main dishes landed in front of our eyes. Well, in our mouths, once again.
I took roasted duck. But I don't know if I was older than the duck. Quack!
And if the spring rolls that were served together with it were indeed nice (but nothing compared to Mattias' own execution), I had some pak choi (theoretically light fried with garlic) that had seen garlic when the duck was alive! (that is a loooong time ago).
Mattias was luckier in his choice with a crispy beef. Probably chinese inspired, it had a very nice texture and it simply tasted good. However, considering my unfortunate experience with the duck and since the crispyness of the beef was given by a quite thick glazing, I had my doubts on the quality of the meat hidden down there...

As you can possibly read between the lines, the experience at this restaurant was far below our expectations.  This teaches me to not ever trust certain people about food ;-D
Indipendently from that, although the place is nice, the personal professional and some of the dishes quite nice, I concluded that it is way over budget for the quality of the food (and the quantity) and that it didn't match my expectations over the dishes. If I could give a suggestion to the owner, I would specialize in one asiatic kitchen, instead of covering almost a whole continent without catching the right tastes.

Attack No. 1, by Chikako Urano

Atakku Nanbāwan: 7 by Chikako Urano
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I manage to read the 7 volumes of this wonderful manga all at once.
I could not stop reading it, although I knew more and less what was going to happen and I was not surprised to find that the volleyball japanese team was quite strong :-)
But if one loves volleyball, this is just lighting up the passion even more; if instead one is not that interested, this could generate some curiosity.
Kozue is not a very classical character, although quite unlucky in love, she is very determined and focused and has the tendency to heat up quite easily.
She has a strong devotion for volleyball and she grows as the story goes, turning enemies in friends and learning more about herself.
What I love most of the manga is that it gives me the positive feeling to devote myself to my work or what I am supposed to do, with the same attitude as the characters of the manga. Maybe there is too much harshness in the story, considering how things are today, but I don't mind the respect for the authority and the capabilities that everyone has to accept fate and give always the best.
The only minor sides are that sometimes certain passages are drawn too quickly, although they are crucial too the story and to the character development.
I hope I will soon have the time to watch the animated version, I can resist without thinking that it has been too many years (maybe 20?) since I have seen an episode!

View all my reviews

Bikini Time

Unfortunately, we had to pack all in hurry. We worked on the house until the night before and the morning of our departure we were very stressed and having a clear lack of time. Just to help out, all our things are not in any "usual place" and having everything spread everywhere made us even more confused. Especially me, matrix-based. So, so far I have discovered that I left home a couple of items: the memory card for the camera (or at least, I hope it is home...), the charger for my incredibly old phone (no comment on this) and finally, two of my bikini. I don't have many of those, since our "seaside time" is very little every year, but having available just one is too much also for me. So, I went and bought one with the sales (but was it really on sale? I never understood that) at Tezenis.

I wonder, should I buy a new charger and a new memory card for my forgetful packing operation?

Clover, Kuroba, by Toriko Chiya

Kurōbā: 1 by Toriko Chiya
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I judge this number of Clover based on the fact that I have actually read the whole story.
It starts as an OL manga, but then ends up to be a bit more like a classical shoujo. This is even admitted by the author in one of the free speech parts in the last numbers. This is also due to the fact that the manga was published on different magazines, with different targets.
However, the story is pleasant to be read - some parts are a bit too long and trivial - but all together, there are some sparks and get surprised there and then.
The characters are very nice, since they develop quite much from the beginning. It is interesting to see how they mature in time.
In general, a pleasant reading, maybe not the most original piece of art, but for us "foreigners" it is a good key for understanding some parts of the japanese culture and daily life.

View all my reviews